I used to think Hose hit it hard but Webster is another level. Anything from square to cover on the offside is like a tracer bullet when he connects.

That was a comfortable win as you can expect really. Yates set the tone early on and then Webster and Hain both carried it on. Only criticism was that with 4/5 overs left you would expect us to get over 200. Mills is still a good death operator though.

Then despite only getting 122 I would say Sussex were lucky to get that. I think they were in double figure of edges that landed safe or went just past the stumps. Woakes incredibly unlucky not to get a wicket but he seems to have a bit of a habit of that in the blast this season?

Sunday's game is now an important one - win the next four and we're through. If Surrey beat Gloucestershire on Saturday then four wins will almost definitely see us second.

I'm predicting a small crowd tonight with the football, no matter how much they market it as a joint football and cricket experience.

Sussex also only 2 wins from 7 so we really should be looking to win this one.

Webster is going to be a huge miss in both comps, which is testament to how good an overseas signing he has been. Given our record with overseas has been pretty poor over the years we have to give the club a lot of credit for this one.

I think it was said on here after our fifth loss in a row that we would have to win the next seven in a row to qualify. Well we've managed two in a row...

Unfortunately all the games between teams from our group and teams from other groups seem to be being won by the teams in our group.

A couple of poles tonight would go down very nicely

Reports now suggesting there was an altercation with punches thrown. No suggestion Stokes or Atkinson were involved in the punches but this is not a good look and could be terminal for his captaincy?

And then to only bring the field in when they need one rather than when they needed two!!

Poor match all round for Barnard - I'm unconvinced by him as a T20 player and fear that's because his nous in this format isn't what it is in red ball.

Poor performance with the bat, dropped a crucial catch and then made a mistake bringing Mouseley on

Fantastic effort from Yates here

meashambear wrote:

Got to ask serious questions about the people who signed off on Thompson. What have the coaches seen in him?

The same thing they saw in Garton

And there goes our big money signing, for 20 in his first over in a low scoring game

The only type of delivery that looked hittable was the short one. First ball we bowl... Short

Is this our worst T20 team ever?

12 runs in 3.4 overs - that's simply not good enough.

Edit - make that in 4 overs

Shaikh is still only 20 so I think worth renewing - he may benefit from doing well in the ODC.

Simmons at 22 has just not played enough cricket to warrant keeping on. A shame but it happens to some fast bowlers.

What has happened to Wylie to mean he isn't playing?

Malik - keep
Garton - don't
Barker - depends on how his body holds up for the rest of the season

ITE7376 wrote:

Andy wrote:

Yeah I agree, they should both definitely play if/when available. Can't recall either ever having opened at 1st team level though so that might not be the spot.

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Bethell had that brief period opening for us in his first season in the T20 when he was like 18/19, an experiment that lasted maybe 1/3 that season and never really came off

Yep, I was going to mention that. Whilst it didn't come off those were his first, first XI games and he's clearly developed a lot since then. I think it's worth giving him another go there if/when he's available.

I think that should/could be the last we see of OHD in this format. He's so hittable, for example any shorter change up balls look so easy to hit out the park.

Thompson seems to go to Yorker every ball for his death bowling, yet in that 19th over he executed so badly that the first four balls were all full tosses.

The batting still looks one batsman light, I think Smith needs to be tried higher up the order.

And I agree with the comments about Barnard's captaincy in this format. Some of the field placings were poor. The Taz Ali over has already been mentioned and there was another over (I can't remember who bowled but it was a seamer from the pavilion end) where we didn't have anyone at cow corner and two boundaries were one bounce fours over mid wickets head. To then top if off by bowling OHD in the last over who had gone for 48 off 3 was bizarre.

The positives are Taz still looks promising, Tariq looked effective yesterday and Webster's batting was what we hoped for.

Unfortunately there are just too many weak spots in the team this year so now we just have to hope it's not a totally embarrassing campaign.

In response to messages about plan and balance of the team, if we lose this as it looks like will be the case, it will have to force a rethink. 0-3 isn't good enough at any point, let alone at the start.

One of Booth/Bamber should come in, Davies should drop out and another extra bat lower down the order, however they would look needs to come in

How Woakes didn't get Mohammed out in that spell I'll never know